Physiological Effects of Acute and Chronic Stress in Human Body

Abstract

Do you forget things? Have you ever felt certain uneasiness in the body or you are tossing in your bed or /you feel uneasy while sleeping? These all could be the symptoms of stress.

Stress might be helpful for short period of time. It has been proven that stress can improve productivity for short span of time but for long duration it can lead to severe illness. It affects our physiology from brain to heart it starts altering their functions.

Stress is anything that challenges our state of homeostasis. Stress has both positive and negative impact in our body. It is the respond of our body to stimulus. It is acute – short period stress and chronic – long period stress. It has been observed that positive stress helps in motivation ,increases work efficiency by releasing hormones such as Cortisol, prolactin etc. which trigger our hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA)  axis, resulting increasing heart rate, breathing rate which might not harmful for short duration but for long period – chronic stress it can alter bodily system and give rise to many diseases. It is essential to understand the need of stress management in our daily life.